Labor Day means Play Day

It's the night before the first day of school and I'm not ready.  We spent all day in Boston, first so Randy and I could go to the temple, and from there we drove out to historic, quaint Concord and went canoeing.  It was beautiful and hot.  From there we drove to a yummy ice cream place and didn't get home until after the kid's bedtime.  Did I mention the ice cream they ate was their dinner?  Pretty much my expectations for tomorrow morning's routine going well are low.  Very low.  But at least we had fun today, no one was seriously hurt other than Parker getting stung by a bee, and we made some great memories with our RI friends. 
Surprisingly, I anticipated today being loaded with fun so we had our special Family Night on Sunday afternoon.  We had a short lesson and shared our family's theme for this year, which is found in Doctrine and Covenants:

"I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

We thought this was a good theme because this year Marcus starts middle school {where he is the only member of our church} and Ethan is all alone in elementary school without an older brother to look out for him.  We wanted the boys to remember they are never alone and help is just a prayer away.  We gave them each a  little flashlight key chain to hang on their backpacks to remind them to be good examples and let the light of Christ that is in each of them shine.  Randy gave them Priesthood blessings and then we gathered around our dining room table for a delicious dinner {spaghetti and meatballs, they're favorite} served on our fine china and had sparkling cider which the boys loooove.  So I guess we aren't starting the year off entirely on the wrong foot.

Randy steered us through the water like a pro

the canoe full of boys.  Miraculously they never capsized although they did run into a few other canoes on the river

Beautiful and historic site of the Old North Bridge and "the shot heard round the world"

Old Manse - Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandfather lived here and watched the battle from his window

National Geographic named this one of the top ten places to get ice cream. 

Parker eating his ice cream, seconds before getting stung by a wasp.  Poor kid.